On Saturday, March 28, the actors Jurij Souček and Andrej Murenc performed the 100th reprise of an educating and entertaining performance about the two most popular pigs Pippi and Melchiade. The honorary patron of this performance was Ms. Katarina Kresal, Minister of Internal Affairs of RS. The director of Mini teater, Mr. Robert Waltl dedicated the performance to the celebration of Jurij Souček's 80th anniversary as well as to the new theatre premises in construction on Križevniška 1.

Once again, the 100th reprise of this performance thrilled the audience with its original stories about the piggy life as conceived by the legendary actor Jurij Souček. We saw what the two pigs can do after jumping out of the TV screen piggying away into the big wide world. The actor Jurij Souček, who celebrates his respectable 80th birthday on April 5, brought his legendary charm also into this performance. It appears this performance will continue charming the young and the adults also in the future. Some of the spectators think that Jurij Souček forms an amusing and well-chosen combination with the freshness of the actor Andrej Murenc – a perfect actor tandem offering great wit and lifelong wisdoms.

The means collected from this performance will be dedicated to the acquisition of half of the lighting equipment in the new Mini teater theatre premises on Križevniška 1. As the Mini teater director, Mr. Robert Waltl said, the project needs another half a million euros to purchase the necessary equipment. He also said: »The construction completion of the first new theatre in the independent Slovenia has been planned for the Autumn of 2009. We were granted a rent-free worn-out building by the Municipality of Ljubljana located on Križevniška 1. We started with the restoration. However, performing some merely cosmetic reparations would never solve our problem, so we decided for a demolition and a complete reconstruction. We are building this theatre with our own means supported by the Municipality of Ljubljana, the Slovene Ministry of Culture and the irreversible grant from Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland within the frame of EEU / Norwegian Financial Mechanism. This time the donators Petrol, Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, Riko hiše d.o.o., Maori, Src.si and some individuals joined the donator list by purchasing the tickets - and of course, there was the honorary patron Ms. Katarina Kresal, Minister of Internal Affairs who contributed almost half of the sum collected in this occasion. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to all donators for their contribution. «

The donators offered their tickets to children who again enjoyed this performance as much as possible.

Mini teater will continue this activity of dedicated fund-raising in order to finish the construction of our new theatre. Among other, we offered 88 individuals / organisations to purchase a seat/chair for 2,000 € in the new Mini teater theatre hall on Križevniška 1. Every purchased chair – just like in the Kino Dvor hall – will be marked with a plate bearing the donator's name. Thus the first chair has been purchased by the Mayor of the Ljubljana Municipality, Mr. Zoran Janković

We keep addressing companies and individuals to help us in acquiring other equipment for our new premises. Mini teater is a non-profit art theatre which has produced 55 performancesin ten years of activity and engaged 110 actors from different artistic environments (Slovenia, Croatia, France, USA, Chad...); our performances for children and our topmost performances for adults have travelled to all the continents and taken part in numerous theatre and puppet festivals all over the world; we have received a number of foreign and national awards and recognitions for best performances or individual contributions within a single performance (acting, directing, set design, costumes, music). In the future too, it is our plan to co-operate with actors, directors, designers, visual artists, writers from different artistic milieus in order to create provoking, creative and qualitative performances leaving indelible marks within the Slovenian theatre at home or on tour over Slovenia and abroad.

The performance Pippi and Melchiade will be performed at Mini teater on Ljubljana Castle again on April 18 at 17.00 – for all those who could not attend yet before.

About Jurij Souček and his 80th jubilee

Recently, Mini teater on Ljubljana Castle has become Souček's parent theatre. The actor has created here three excellent theatre roles in: Hansel and Gretchen, in Mishkolin (the performance had almost 200 reprises) and in Pippi and Melchiade.

On March 28, Jurij Souček performed together with Andrej Murenc in our 100th reprise of Pippi and Melchiade. The performance was directed by Robert Waltl. In a little more than a year the performance was attended by 16,778 spectators in different theatres in Slovenia and abroad.

Souček's jubilee will be celebrated also in the Slovene National Theatre SNG Drama in Ljubljana, which used to be his parent theatre up to his retirement.

In the morning, the 101st reprise of the hit performance Pippi and Melchiade will take place on the theatre Small Stage (Mala drama), and in the evening, the opera Tosca will be performed on the Big Stage (Veliki oder); the opera was directed by Jurij Souček and his life-time companion and opera singer Ms. Milena Morača sings an important role.

Programme of Mini teater is created within the international European project Experimental Theatre Academy (ETA), financially supported by the European Comission, programme Culture (2007-2013). The project is coordinated by Mini teater Ljubljana (Slovenia) with partners UO Novo Kazalište Zagreb (Croatia), Estonian State Puppet Theatre - NUKU (Talin, Estonia), Dječije pozorište Republike Srpske (Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Gradsko kazalište lutaka Split (Croatia) and Maladype Színház (Budapest, Hungary). This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The programme and operation of Mini teater is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana's Department of Culture.